Paleo for the average Jane

Fancy Eatin’ (Blender Hollandaise Sauce)

First of all, to the folks that have been visiting from Norway, Hei og velkommen! (Um, I tried at least?) I’m truly delighted you are here! WordPress is so cool… it tells me where people are visiting from. And I’m not going to lie, seeing this little blog float across the interwebs into other countries absolutely delights me.

Now for tasty eating: This is another one of those eat only every once in a while foods. But with Thanksgiving coming up, I wanted to start coming up with some fancy eatin’ recipes that would fit the bill in case I have any company. This will bridge the gap perfectly between non paleo eaters and those of us who try and keep it clean. Sure, it shouldn’t be guzzled every day. But for special occasions where one might want a real WOW factor, it’s perfect.

This particular recipe is delicious on all sorts of things. (For instance, try it on eggs. It’s transcendent!) But, I had some asparagus in the fridge that needed cooking, so roasted veggies it is. The general procedure for roasting veggies is mostly the same for all veg. I am of of the mind that roasted veggies should be kept as simple as possible. Once roasted, they can be fancied up afterwords with sauces and dressings. The general procedure for roasting:

Trim and clean the veggies. In this case, I just snapped the woody ends off the asparagus.

Lay it out on a sheet pan… the veggies should have a little room so that they can get all surrounded and happy with the heat.

Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil. Give it a good dousing, but don’t go totally crazy.

Sprinkle a fair amount of salt and pepper on the whole mess. I gave it a few good grinds of each grinder.

Toss the veg, oil, salt and pepper together, and arrange more or less into one layer on the pan. It’ll look wicked pretty, all glistening and salt and peppered.

Now, this is where it is a little fluid. For delicate veggies such as asparagus or tomatoes or zucchini, between 350 and 400 for 15 or so minutes is fine. For instance, if there is something already cooking in the oven, just stick the veggies in with it, and keep an eye on them. I was cooking chicken, so these went in too. Those delicate veggies can be cooked to individual preference. I happen to like them to have a bit of a bite to them, so I go a little lighter on the cook time. The asparagus above is actually a little overdone, but what can ya do?

Hearty veggies, like root veggies, need to go until they are fork tender. Depending on how small they are cut up, it can be anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Go ahead and just give them a poke and a taste every once in a while.

Now… for the main event. This is something that is SUPER simple to make. There is only one sort of finicky part, and even that isn’t too bad.

Ingredients:

– 2 Egg Yolks

– 4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

– 4 Tablespoons Butter (I used 2 TBS of truffle butter, because I found it at the grocery store, and 2 of regular butter. Ghee could also be used instead of butter.)

– Juice of 1/2 lemon

– Salt and Pepper

– NOT SEEN: Hot water (This may or may not be needed. It depends on the finished thickness of the sauce.)

Hardware:

– Blender (my poor little blender)

– Small Saucepan

– Rubber Spatula

– Measuring Spoons

Put 4 tablespoons of oil, and 4 tablespoons of butter (or ghee) into the pan. Heat it up slow and low. NOW!!! This is the only part that is a little tricky. DON’T LET IT GET TOO HOT. It should be warm, but not hot. If it’s too hot, it’ll turn the sauce into greasy scrambled eggs in blender, and that is sad. I personally let it heat up and get melty and very slightly foamy, then take it off the heat and let it cool a bit, then start making the sauce.

See, foamy. I turned off the heat at this point, waited a minute or two, then started making the sauce. Once the sauce itself gets started, it goes very quickly. It’s the last thing that should be made before dinner is served, but it’s not any big thing because it takes at MOST, three minutes. 4.5 at most, because you’ll want to scrape every last drop out of the blender.

Okay: here we go.

Separate two eggs. Reserve the whites or not, but put the yolks into the bowl of the blender.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of dijon mustard.

Stick the top back on the blender and let it whir for a bit, so everything can get happy and combined and whatnot.

SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLY drizzle in the WARM NOT HOT oil/butter mixture. The point here is to let the butter get ever so slowly incorporated into the eggs. By doing this slowly, it allows the fat particles to combine with the yolks and emulsify.

I didn’t get a picture of the next part because I only have so many hands. Trying to squirt lemon into the blender AND take pictures was just too much for me. I need to grow another set of hands.

Anyway, once all the butter is added and combined and with the blender still running, add the juice of half a lemon, and let the blender go a little bit more.

.It should look all creamy and delicious. Taste it, and season with salt and pepper if needed. Now, it’s a little thick. Depending on a few different things, it can be a little thick. At this point, I actually scraped down the blender bowl and added about 2 tablespoons of hot water to thin it down a bit. But, for the most part, it’s done!

Pour it on veggies, pour it on eggs. TRY not to just eat it with a damned spoon. Everything in moderation folks!